TVvoodoo's Straplab

Sorry been a weird few days here... nicked the end of left thumb off again with the razor knife yesterday, so dealing with that,
the my dad asks me to ferry him to the not the nearest hospital, the one even a little further away because he likes that one better LOL!
This morning, I had to spend a bunch of time figuring out why USPS says some guys strap was delivered when he says it definitely was NOT.
Anyway, as far as I could get today was to get the graphics done and printed on acetate late this morning, then trace it onto the leather this afternoon.

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Then, I managed to rough carve the elements into the leather... tomorrow I will transform myself into a beveling maniac to push the background to the back
and help pop the 3D-ness of the features.

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Working today, with a flappy skin on my lip. Yesterday I nuked a cup of coffee too long and burnt it so bad I had a big old blister on it
Dang that was painful too!

Work on Alice's Wonderland continues today... a lot of beveling and detail work

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Though this kind of screams for a lot of colour, the customer wants it more low key and in brown tones to match his instruments better.
So, no paint or coloured dyes, but I'm going to stay all in monochrome but with some highlights and dark bits.
So I will be resist painting tonight on some spots I want to stay light.

The Jethro we know took some great pics! I hope he don't mind that I took some creative liberties one, and probably will others too. He's deserves the rock star treatment

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Also, a pretty decent match here with a Gretch and the Swamp Bottom Python - another brother here, @GrooVey

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That's all I got today. did you know yesterday was National Guitar Day? I didn't even pick one up. Sad
 
Alice continued today... late last night did a very light yellow dye coat, resisted the items I wanted to stay light. This morning, after some decorative cuts added, I commenced straight to antiqueing. I sometimes do this, just use antique as a main die for the whole piece. It comes in many shades, I have four or five here. This is the lightest shade called "Tan" and you just goop it on, rub it in with a toothbrush grind 'er into all the cuts, wait a few beats, then just wipe it off, and buff out.

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Turned out pretty nice.

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Brings out the detail, looks nice once it's all buffed. Man sometimes these extreme close-ups make me cringe a bit, but at life size it looks better.

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Let the antiquing dry and sit for a couple of hours, then, I dyed the edges, and burnished them to a smooth shine.

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Lastly it's going to sit oiled with neatsfoot which draws the colour a little deeper, and I will clearcoat tonight,
prior to assembly and stitching tomorrow, and another few coats of clear over the weekend.

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Where does the time go? Happy Thursday!
 
TVvoodoo said:
Alice continued today... late last night did a very light yellow dye coat, resisted the items I wanted to stay light. This morning, after some decorative cuts added, I commenced straight to antiqueing. I sometimes do this, just use antique as a main die for the whole piece. It comes in many shades, I have four or five here. This is the lightest shade called "Tan" and you just goop it on, rub it in with a toothbrush grind 'er into all the cuts, wait a few beats, then just wipe it off, and buff out.

GrwaP0pM_o.jpg


Turned out pretty nice.

FhulbbYa_o.jpg


Brings out the detail, looks nice once it's all buffed. Man sometimes these extreme close-ups make me cringe a bit, but at life size it looks better.

vKQC7sYq_o.jpg


Let the antiquing dry and sit for a couple of hours, then, I dyed the edges, and burnished them to a smooth shine.

FeDRPqOS_o.jpg


Lastly it's going to sit oiled with neatsfoot which draws the colour a little deeper, and I will clearcoat tonight,
prior to assembly and stitching tomorrow, and another few coats of clear over the weekend.

2YQv7OMF_o.jpg


Where does the time go? Happy Thursday!
Click to expand...
Alice is gonna be really cool. It already is and isn’t done yet.
 
Alice is pretty much done, assembled with a back buckle system, one pic now,
I'm just adding another couple more clearcoats and still need to punch a nose hole
Not sure about straplocks or not...

This one is for one of our brothers here... perhaps you can guess

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This is a fun photo, Paul in the GTA gets the rockstar treatment for sending in a photo...
He tells me this was taken when his band "Barstool Confession" was opening for Sam Roberts at an arena show last weekend.

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He wanted to mention the tele he's wearing is kind of special - says the top wood is made of the dressing room floorboards of the El Mocambo in Toronto, before being ripped out and refinished... I've never been but I understand basically that would be kind of like Canada's Filmore? Or maybe more like the Whiskey? So, in actuality, a genuine who's who of rock royalty have actually walked on his instrument over the years! He noted it was built by Garen Dakessian, of Loucin Guitars. It's pinned on a Well-Hung Prophecy strap

Send in your performance photo wearing your Well-Hung sling, maybe I'll give you the "rockstar" photoshop treatment too!

Another thing I'm working on in the background, might be of particular interest to Canuckian fellas on this forum... seems to be a resurgence of patriotism
lately, a fellow asked if I could do it as a custom job for him, and it works very very well! Maybe next week I'll see if I can't cook a few more of these up.

This is Husdon's Bay wool blanket, a historic sort of throwback to fur trade times before the Canadian West was settled. These were traded to Natives for beaver pelts and are kind of a special Canadiana item... the blankets still sell, but are highest quality and rather expensive. I found one that about a quarter of it was pretty damaged... so a little bit of deal...

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Happy Friday - how bout another AI song? Again, lyrics by me, music by 0010011010010 it has a little salty language

suno.com

Go Bag

Listen and make your own on Suno.
suno.com suno.com
 
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Shipping today, a new custom version of the HBC strap, goes 52"-62" long for a big fella.
Little nod to Canada's fur trade history

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Got a cool photo back from a customer... this EB/MM Kaizen looks something like a guitar I might have sketched out in my school scribbler as a 15 year old...
ok quite a bit better, that what I managed to draw LOL!

Phil's got an older W-H sling, a polka dot on it, looks pretty class to me!

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Been going back and forth with Josh, looking for something custom... he wants a bit of a western flavour with big turquoise conchos, in my Class Act design, and I'm going to work in an inset of hair on cowhide, contrasting stitching and a much more western looking buckle.

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We finally settled on a similar coloured suede, to the light parts of the cow fur. I'll be working on this one this afternoon...
here's as far as I got - the trick here is to cut out the frame for the fur inset out of the leather with a razor knife.
New sharp blade and a steady hand. This will be the backside, the suede side on the other is what will show.

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Watch the reverb store for "Constrictor" if you are interested - coming probably to the store later today.
One only, pretty wild snakey pattern, with a bit of shine .... nicely padded 46-56

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Happy Hump day!
 
The custom for Josh, I'm calling Trail Boss, is complete and should be on the way tomorrow.
This one was a bit of a mind-bender, the first time I have tried this style/design...(or my take on it anyway). There are several differences on this from my typical build. Getting the inset centred
down the very middle was one of the challenges. I didn't get it perfect, but not too bad.

Overall this strap has a dressy western elegance to it, but also more casual/workingman due to the
use of chap suede on the outside. I've seen this design with two layers of the same finished leather, but tooled borders on each and it was really over the top country cool. Maybe that's something I can aspire towards someday.

Oil tanned suede upper, hair-on cowhide inset, conchos, contrasting stitching...

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A western styled buckle at the back end, My Class Act design... protected from guitar contact - and pass-thru tail strap. Simple, not super expensive hardware from Tandy, but pretty sturdy quality. I'm not sure how other strapmakers would approach the inside pad/lining of this... I had to put a LOT of padding on the inside, build up between so all the screwbacks of the conchos won't be jutting out to dig into the customer's back. I fear perhaps many others wouldn't go as far as I did, in order to make them indiscernible.

Biggest problem with this strap will be finding a hat and belt to match!
 
New in the store a couple of rare Velociraptors, in my Class Act back buckle format, with the pass thru on the end that protects your instrument. Found this beautiful hide online, and I'll be making some ladder straps out of it later, but I had two longer pieces so I figured it was time to drop a couple of new Class Act straps in the store. Kind of a pain to make, but a total breeze to adjust!

3" wide and padded in the shoulder just like my others, with the rolled edges too. And a light tan like this is something I don't
work with too often. But when I think about it, these are similar to black straps in that they will float nicely between MANY different
guitar finishes. All kind of bursts, Easter egg fenders, acoustics, BSB, CSB, whatever you throw on it, might be epic!

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I made a pair of these, same hide but the other one is just a bit busier than this one. Though I really like the simple elegance of the mega reptile pattern.
This has a nice semi-gloss shine to it. Both of them adjust between 44"-57, one of them goes a bit longer. But 57" is about 6 inches longer than most
store-bought ladder type straps. Good to know if you suffer feeling shorted by store straps and always end up with them on the last loop,
nd they're STILL too short! Man I hate that when I was buying straps.

Happy Friday!
 
Thank you @GrooVey - you are a TOTAL gentleman, I don't care what all the local ladies say! The Reverb feedback you left is the best
music for any of the ears of customers sitting on the fence.

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Fellas, if you want to do me a real favour? Leave Reverb feedbacks like what he done!

I have a list of straps in my head I WANT to make, just can't seem to get there because of a nice little run of custom work!
Case in point, These two 1969 ribbon on leather padded 3-inchers in my Class Act back buckle format for a multi-repeat customer, Mil.

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These ship out to Georgia tomorrow, after I punch them for straplocks. The sad thing is, he says after this pair, all of his guitars will be Well-Hung.
I told him a far as I knew, they are still making new guitars and even putting some of them in stores LOL!!!

I think this might be my final custom job for a little bit, slated for Thursday. However, I wanted to pre-prep the leather and have it
ready for assembly as these dye and finish jobs typically take four or five days, to get the components ready, so I actually started on this yesterday.

He was just going to pick up the Mid-Evil strap on the right, but I didnt' think it would work.
You can't see it in the pic here, but the strap is way too blue, not enough green for that rather magical Guild Crater Blue metallic finish -

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I added a two layers of blue/green dye mix after a light dye of my regular blue then darkened it all down with black.
Though you can't see it in the pic below, I think I may have nailed it to the wall! But geez... what a colour!

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This dang Mid-Evil strap is a terrible seller, but one of my very favourite straps to make and wear. It's such an original unique design,
so much texture and it's still macho without being cowboy or heavy metal. And it fulfils the Well-Hung comfort promise besides.
 
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